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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24993229">do androids dream of electric fish?</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/tinypi/pseuds/tinypi'>tinypi</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Domestic, Gen, mentions of other androids, no actual references to philip k dick's book cause i read it and it's not that great, vague allusions to philosophy</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-06-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-06-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 02:08:01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,243</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24993229</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/tinypi/pseuds/tinypi</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>His eyes focus on the dark ceiling. Hank’s feet smell, but not terribly so. He wonders what his socked feet smell like to Hank, if there’s a difference between them and the rest of him. Hank’s breathing begins to deepen and Connor nudges him before he can fully fall asleep.</p>
<p>“Do you think I’m different? Now that Markus woke me up?”</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Hank Anderson &amp; Connor</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>70</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>do androids dream of electric fish?</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>At 2:43am, Hank exits his bedroom to cross the hall into the bathroom. </p>
<p>Connor is sitting on a couch cushion he dragged over to the record player, big headphones secured over his ears. He can interface with the player directly and have the music play in his head, but he prefers this, however inefficient it might be. With the comforting weight of the headphones, outside audio is mostly cut off and the music becomes all-consuming, the only thing Connor can hear clearly with its tiny imperfections where the needle has worn the records down over time.</p>
<p>They’ve bought some new records on Connor’s request which are still in near-perfect condition, but Hank’s well-loved collection shows its age. </p>
<p>“You have to hold them carefully, like this,” Hank had said, “otherwise the oils on your fingers will- Well. I guess they won’t, with you.” But Connor had smiled, and nodded, and flipped the record just the way Hank showed him.</p>
<p>When Hank returns and ambles into the kitchen, Sumo gets up from where he’s resting his head half on Connor’s lap and half on the cushion to trot up to Hank and nose at his fingers, hoping for a treat. Hank pats his head and says something Connor doesn’t catch before inspecting a glass he finds near the sink, shrugging, and filling it with tap water. He opens the fridge, stares into it for 5.7 seconds and then closes it without taking anything out.</p>
<p>The fridge now has a drawer that’s reserved entirely for packets of thirium for Connor “and for when you have friends over”. Connor didn’t think he had an abundance of android friends to have over, but then the unofficial leaders of Jericho had decided that they needed several places to hold meetings so the press wouldn’t camp at the door every time, and Connor’s place had become one of them. Everyone loves Sumo. </p>
<p>North and Hank snipe at each other a lot, but in a way where Connor is pretty sure they’re both having fun with it. </p>
<p>As far as anyone knows, they’re the inventors of android cocktails, leading back to the day Hank, surprising everyone since he usually left them to it during their meetings, asked “Can you mix this blue stuff with other things or does that mess you up?”, to which Josh had said that it seemed extremely unwise, to which North had said that she’d try anything once.</p>
<p>Connor likes his with a little bit of lemon.</p>
<p><em> No standby tonight</em>, Hank asks, although it takes Connor a second to read his lips, because it’s dark and Hank has a beard.</p>
<p>“No, I’m thinking,” Connor says. Hank smiles in that way he does anytime Connor accidentally shouts at him because he didn’t think to compensate for the music only he can hear. Connor tugs off the headphones to hang around his neck. “Sorry.”</p>
<p>Hank shrugs. “What are you thinking about?”</p>
<p>“Someone has uploaded Cyberlife’s files onto the internet.”</p>
<p>“Okay.”</p>
<p>“All of my reports are now publicly available.”</p>
<p>“Oh. Huh. Anything, uh,” he squints, waves a hand, “incriminating?”</p>
<p>“For you or for me?” Connor smiles, then backtracks when Hank actually looks spooked. “Nothing too bad. There’s more interesting stuff in their files than you driving under the influence. Any misconduct in our work is mostly void, since androids have rights now.”</p>
<p>“So what’s bothering you?”</p>
<p>Connor tilts his head and takes off the headphones, turning off the record player. “I was looking through my reports and then my more recent memories and I can’t pinpoint the moment I became a deviant. When I talked to the other androids, they all said there was a moment where they just <em> knew</em>. Where they just suddenly felt different, <em> because </em> they were feeling something and they could choose for themselves. But for me, Markus just asked, and I said yes.” He takes the record off the player, sliding it into the sleeve ever so carefully.</p>
<p>“What are you saying, Connor?”</p>
<p>“Amanda told me that I was always meant to become a deviant. That Cyberlife had planned for it to happen, like they programmed it into me. So what if what I’m experiencing is just what Cyberlife programming thinks deviancy is? If I was made to become a deviant, was I not just following another order when Markus asked me to join his side?”</p>
<p>“Are you telling me that you don’t think you’re a deviant?” Hank moves to sit on the arm of the couch.</p>
<p>Connor hesitates. “I… do believe that I’m a deviant. But going through these files, there is no moment where I woke up, so to speak. So am I really experiencing free will, or was I just programmed to experience it?”</p>
<p>“Jesus Christ, Connor. What part of me makes you think I’m any good at discussing philosophy?”</p>
<p>They’re silent for a moment, both watching as Sumo surreptitiously shuffles over to them, clearly waging which option is more likely to give him ear scritches before he settles on Connor.</p>
<p>“Okay, so.” Hank nods at the TV. “Let’s look together. Show me what you’ve got.”</p>
<p>They start with Markus. Hank pulls down another couch cushion and goes to the bedroom to retrieve a pair of comfortable looking sweatpants and an old hoodie. Connor makes him a cup of coffee and sticks his finger in it when Hank isn’t looking to check the temperature and caffeine percentage.</p>
<p>Hank argues that Connor being able to choose to follow Markus must mean deviancy. Connor shakes his head.</p>
<p>“I didn’t know it at the time, but I was doing what Cyberlife wanted me to.”</p>
<p>So they work their way forwards. Hank winces when he arrives with the other Connor, when they fight.</p>
<p>“What would Cyberlife gain from you saving my life? Picking me over the revolution?”</p>
<p>“That’s not the point. Whether or not I’m really a deviant, I’m at least a programmed deviant, so I am acting on emotions. The question is whether I’m truly experiencing the emotions or if they’re just there because Cyberlife gave them to me.”</p>
<p>They witness the android revolution in fast forward, sped up androids comically marching through the streets of Detroit.</p>
<p>“Ah-” Hank goes when Connor shakes off Amanda in his own head, leaving the Zen Garden and the raging blizzard behind.</p>
<p>“Kamski interference,” Connor cuts him off.</p>
<p>The revolution succeeds. Connor talks to Markus, North, Simon, Josh, a myriad of other androids. Hank smiles when he recognizes the androids from the Eden Club, but lets Connor continue uncommented. When they arrive at Chicken Feed, he begins jumping ahead even faster. Hank knows what happened from this point on.</p>
<p>“See,” Connor says when they arrive at the present and the TV is showing a live feed of the things Connor is seeing right now. By now they’re sitting directly in front of the TV so Hank can use the touchscreen rather than voice commands to pause or go back and forth. It’s not good for his eyes, but Hank waved him off when Connor said so. Sumo has long since abandoned his quest for pats and has retired to his doggy bed.</p>
<p>They’ve been at it for two hours. Hank can tell because the TV shows him 5:03 am when he hovers his hand over a corner, and Connor can tell because he’s an android.</p>
<p>“Stop analyzing my eyes,” Hank grumbles and Connor looks back at the TV to see his own measurements on how dry Hank’s eyes are scrolling along the right side of the screen.</p>
<p>“Stop pretending you don’t need glasses,” he replies and pretends not to notice Hank’s affronted look by cutting the feed to the TV.</p>
<p>Hank sighs. “So you’re really not convinced you’re a deviant yet?”</p>
<p>“I just don’t think there’s conclusive evidence and I don’t know why that doesn’t bother you. You did mistake me for the other Connor at Cyberlife.”</p>
<p>“Hey, I said I was sorry. Plus he had me at gunpoint when we arrived, cause I’d figured it out on the way there. <em> Plus</em>, I didn’t shoot you, so there,” Hank says, looking triumphant.</p>
<p>“But how could you tell? How can you tell, now?” </p>
<p>“The way that you are, that you act.” Hank shrugs. “I just can. It seems obvious to me.”</p>
<p>“Great, thanks.” Connor frowns.</p>
<p>Hank shuffles around, pushing the couch cushion out from under him to lay down on the floor, head cushioned by his arms, which are cushioned by the pillow. He sighs deeply, eyes closed. </p>
<p>Ever so carefully, Connor mirrors his position. He pushes the cushion out to be level with Hank’s feet and lies down on the floor. It’s nice. He likes the way his senses suddenly seem to be divided between sound and touch, how he can hear and feel Hank breathing next to him, the hum of the refrigerator in the kitchen.</p>
<p>His eyes focus on the dark ceiling. Hank’s feet smell, but not terribly so. He wonders what his socked feet smell like to Hank, if there’s a difference between them and the rest of him. Hank’s breathing begins to deepen and Connor nudges him before he can fully fall asleep.</p>
<p>“Do you think I’m different? Now that Markus woke me up?”</p>
<p>“Well,” Hank hesitates, “no, I suppose not.” He yawns.</p>
<p>“So you agree.”</p>
<p>“No. You’re a prototype, Connor, the android sent by Cyberlife. I figured that was it, but to be honest, you already acted like a deviant way before you joined the revolution,” Hank says, vaguely shaking a rebellious fist at the ceiling. “You already gave Cyberlife the middle finger when you refused to kill that android at Kamski’s place.”</p>
<p>Connor shakes his head. “But I wasn’t a deviant yet.”</p>
<p>“Weren’t you?” Hank sits up suddenly and begins flipping through files on the TV, searching through the Cyberlife database. “Kamski certainly seemed to think so.”</p>
<p>They watch through the meeting, Connor’s memory overlapping with what he’s seeing on the screen. Past Connor’s hand shakes and drops, unable to shoot. Hank pauses.</p>
<p>“That’s how I know. Or knew, whatever.”</p>
<p>Connor bites his lip. It didn’t use to be in his social simulation programming to do that, but he saw North do it. “I was following your orders. As the lieutenant I was assigned to, I had to obey you.”</p>
<p>“Oh fuck off, you and I both know Cyberlife didn’t give a shit about my orders.”</p>
<p>They fall silent, staring at the paused TV, at Connor’s failure. The right side of the screen is continuously scrolling through input received in that very moment, the weight and model of the gun, the temperature of the room, the warmth of the pool behind him, the position of every android in the room, Hank, agitated, Kamski, excited.</p>
<p>“What’s that?” Hank asks, eyes catching on one particular piece of input.</p>
<p>“An error message,” Connor says, bringing the ‘Software Instability’ pop-up to the front of the screen, “it happened whenever I did something that didn’t fit my orders from Cyberlife.”</p>
<p>“Connor,” Hank grinds out, and he doesn’t seem angry, exactly, but Connor still feels like he’s about to get punched. “If you’ve been getting these errors all along, doesn’t that mean you were becoming a deviant the whole time?”</p>
<p>“It doesn’t work like a countdown.” Connor frowns. “You either are a deviant or you aren’t.”</p>
<p>“So how do we know you weren’t a deviant the whole time? When did you first contradict Cyberlife? When did you make your first decision, Connor?”</p>
<p>“I…,” Connor trails off as the TV begins flipping through files for him. A number of memories play out before them, the bridge, the Eden Club, pulling Hank up onto the roof, Kara on the street. They arrive at the beginning, at the very first file that RK800 #313 248 317 - 52 ever uploaded to Cyberlife and are prompted to continue viewing the files of - 51, Connor’s predecessor. </p>
<p>“Are you telling me there were 51 Connors before you? That’s going to take more than one night,” Hank chuckles.</p>
<p>“No, it’s technically 5.1. The 5.0 model was a test version, 51 was the first Connor released into the field. The ones before that were similar, but not exactly like me.”</p>
<p>“There’s not a lot here… what did you get up to before we met?”</p>
<p>“I only know some parts. Cyberlife never gave me the full information. They must have thought it wouldn’t be relevant to my mission.”</p>
<p>There are two files denoted with ‘Software Instability’ for Connor - 51. The latter one shows him rushing a PL600 off a roof, pushing a little girl back towards safety as the two androids fall over the edge. Hank exits out of the video before Connor can hit the pavement.</p>
<p>The other file is a short 12 seconds long. Connor bends down to pick up a fish off the floor, inspects it, then drops it into what remains of an aquarium.</p>
<p>The video ends.</p>
<p>“Connor-”</p>
<p>“I don’t understand.”</p>
<p>“Connor, did you go deviant over a fucking fish?”</p>
<p>“I don’t think so? That doesn’t seem right.”</p>
<p>“There was no one else there, Connor. No one saw you do that. This wasn’t your human-social-whatever programming, this was you seeing a fish that was going to die and <em> caring </em>about it. Mystery fucking solved.” Hank leans back, groaning as his spine cracks ominously.</p>
<p>Connor remains silent, staring at the fish on screen. <em> Trichogaster Ialius. </em></p>
<p>“Goddamn bleeding heart android.”</p>
<p>“Hank, if we get a fish do you think Sumo would like it?”</p>
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